Carrot Cupcakes

I think I make a pretty decent carrot cake. Honestly, why make something like this that no one likes. I make it a lot for family get-togethers or church functions. One of my brothers really likes it, at least he claims to. It might just be that he is being nice and eating half the cake. :) I decided that if I can make it as a cake, let's see what it would be like for a cupcake. I found the original recipe several years ago in one of those cookbooks that you find at the end of a register. I have adapted it for how I like it.

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 c oil (I use canola)
3 cups shredded carrots

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1 package cream cheese (8 oz)
1/2 cup butter
8 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk (this is an approximation based on how thick you want your icing)
1 tsp vanilla


Directions:
Put flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl and stir the ingredients together. (I use a whisk to do this, it just gets it well blended). In another bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs. Combine the two bowls. This will be a pretty thick mixture. Add the carrots and stir well. Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350 {cupcake (about 25-30 minutes), 9x13 (40-45 minutes), jelly roll (25-30 minutes), 2 rounds (35-40 minutes)--these are all ways I have made this recipe}. When this is cooled, use your favorite cream cheese icing (or use mine above) and enjoy.

Helpful Hints:
My grocery store has, in the past, carried shredded carrots that were perfect. It was the right amount and the right size. They don't appear to carry those anymore, but the julienne carrots work nicely in the cake. They are a little big for the cupcakes. I got 24 cupcakes out of this, but I think I filled my first cupcake pan too full, so you might be able to get a few more than that. You probably only need to fill the pan about half full, because these will rise, a lot. Since this was something I had not done before, I only made one pan in the beginning (knowing I could put it in a cake pan and bake the other half of the batter). After I saw how it would work, I finished filling my other cupcake pan. I think a nice add on, if you like it, would be to add raisins to these cupcakes. Walnuts, either to the icing or the cake itself, would be lovely as well.

All but about 3 were filled too full

The pan on the left I filled to half

Overall, I think it turned out nicely as a cupcake. I hope you try it sometime and let me know what you think. A few other things I have done with this recipe is put all the dry ingredients in a quart size bag (it doesn't seem to fit in a mason jar though) and given it as a gift with a tag saying to add eggs, oil and carrots and the baking directions. Additionally, I have replaced the sugar with Splenda and it tastes yummy.

Carrot Cupcake with cream cheese frosting

****************I made these again and this is what I did **************

M & Ms in the shape of a carrot